Good story. at least you got the rod back and you lost it to a cool fish, my buddy who shall remain nameless lost a very expensive setup to a big chub. lol. He left it barely out of the water while rigging another rod and splash the rod was gone. We know it was a chub because there were monster chubs right by the boat.

You've never seen Trav smile soo big until he loses his rig and gets it back LOL. I was with him and I will say we went from having a great day to a horrible one just that fast. We turned around and all we saw was the worlds first flying rod and reel combo. But then I got a phone call on the way back with the goggles from my boy screaming like he won the lotto creaming "I GOT IT BACK, I GOT IT BACK" Epic win if you ask me. We'd like to thank Daiwa for making a kick ass reel that can hook a ray and a Penn Battle ROFL

It may be a bit expensive, but there is a product called Salt Away that is used for boat engines & hullsides. It works excellent & really dissolves the salt. There is also a version that has teflon in it. You can find it at any West Marine or other boating store. If it keeps an outboard clean internally, it'll do wonders for a dunked reel.

Ed

Some people build bridges. Some people fish off the bridges. Some people burn their bridges. Others should just be pushed off the bridge.
Caught by hand.